AA Battery Charger question

[geepondy]

Received with my digital camera accessory kit is an "Impact" AAA and AA charger. It charges up to four batteries in pairs of two. Question, is it ok to insert two identical AA nimh cells but with each one being at a different charge level? Typically situation is that one will be quite low and the other something less then quite low. Will it charge both cells close to full capacity?

 

[radellaf]

Generally not a good idea if there's much capacity difference, especially with a charger faster than 8 hour. If it's a 12-16 hour (like 200ma usually) one, then the overcharge on the one cell isn't ideal but will be OK.

Best case with a faster charger is it'll terminate with one cell full and the other one not. Trickle (if charger has it) would even up small differences.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Geepondy,

I would not recommend it.

You may want to review the information in this thread.

Tom

 

[radellaf]

The 4000N that seems the focus of series chargers, charges in a few hours. You'd be "OK" with a C/10 2 cell series charger to "rebalance" with a 14-16 hour charge.

I used to use the Maha 204 slow charger and it'd overheat the more full cell.

So, yeah, I fully agree on the not recommending it. Spend a few bucks on an independent channel charger. The new Eneloop ones seem like really good deals ($10-15 ea.). dunno how you tell which of 4 cells are charged with one green light though.

Thought the C401fs at slow was close to ideal, but just read the charger comparison about it overheating more often on the slow setting than on the fast. Hmph. I'm very fond of it on fast (1 amp) mode, though. Slow (300ma?) with 2700 cells is close to C/10.

 

[geepondy]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I guess I should have known that in a package deal, you might not get the best battery charger. I'll bring my little Titanium to work and use that instead while keeping my Rayovac one hour charger for home use.